October 30: Genealogy of Calcium at Hubbard Brook: Soils, Parent and Grandparent Materials, Scott Bailey, Research Geoecologist, US Forest Service, Northern Research Station

November 6: A Day in the Life of an Environmental First Responder, Raymond Reimold, Complaint Investigator, NH Dept of Environmental Services (Ray is a 2008 graduate of PSU’s MS in Environmental Science and Policy program)

November 13: Motorized Recreation and Its Role in New Hampshire, Chris Gamache, Chief, NH Bureau of Trails, Division of Parks & Recreation

Dr. Kathleen Bush joins PSU this fall as a research affiliate at the Center for the Environment and Adjunct Faculty in Biology and ES&P. Kathleen is an environmental health scientist, trained at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Her doctoral work focused on extreme precipitation and waterborne disease. She joins us from North Carolina where she was an ASPH/EPA Environmental Health Fellow at the US EPA in Research Triangle Park working with the EnviroAtlas Team to investigate the linkages bewteen ecosystem services and human health.

Kathleen was recently awarded an EPSCoR Seed Grant. In partnership with New Hampshire Health and Human Services and White Mountains Community College STEM-health Camp, this grant will launch a collaborative research project focused on STEM research and STEM education related to climate change and human health in New Hampshire.

Plymouth State’s Center for the Environment is hosting a statewide teacher institute in association with the LoVoTECS research project on August 5 & 6. The focus of the workshop will be to engage teachers in the process of using data collected by the research team in developing curriculum for use in their middle school and high school classrooms. Approximately 25 teachers will be attending, representing schools from across the state. Participants will take part in opportunities to analyze and manipulate datasets collected by LoVoTECS aquatic sensors, think about research questions that they or their students could develop around project data, and create curriculum to put into practice these ideas once they return to their classes in the fall. Approximately half of the teachers taking part in the institute currently act as volunteers water monitors, maintaining sets of sensors in their own locales, while the other half will be new to the project and learning more about the overall research initiative. The institute is coordinated by Doug Earick.

This workshop, funded by the National Science Foundation, is part of NH EPSCoR’s statewide Ecosystems and Society project. Researchers are studying the environment in an effort to support better management of the state’s natural resources, so that population growth and development proceed in a sustainable fashion, without threatening the quality of life that makes New Hampshire a desirable place to live and visit. The mission of NH EPSCoR is to broaden and strengthen New Hampshire’s research capacity and competitiveness through research, education and economic development. It’s critical for the state to broaden and diversify the capacity to conduct research; to support business, industry and society with a workforce educated in science, engineering and mathematics; and to improve communication between scientists and the public.

New Hampshire and Maine’s coastal tourism and shellfish industries contribute $400 million annually to the regional economy but the coastal environment is vulnerable to the effects of land development and climate change. A team of researchers led by the University of New Hampshire and the University of Maine will conduct a three-year study of the many factors affecting the health of their shared coastal ecosystem. This collaboration, funded by a $6 million award from the National Science Foundation, aims to strengthen the scientific basis for decision making for the management of recreational beaches and shellfish harvesting.

Plymouth State University’s Center for the Environment will participate in the project through expanding a current water research project to the Gulf of Maine, leading workforce development initiatives, and examining inclusive decision-making as a product of ecosystem research. Three of PSU’s faculty (Mark Green, assistant professor of hydrology; Doug Earick, assistant research professor; and Shannon Rogers, assistant professor and ecological economics) and students from the Center for the Environment and Department of Environmental Science and Policy will be involved in the project.

Shannon Rogers, assistant professor of ecological economics at PSU’s Center for the Environment and Department of Environmental Science and Policy is partnering with the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on improving USACE resilience to climate change threats. Under the USACE Program to Reduce Civil Works Vulnerabilities, the project will help USACE to continue meeting its mission requirements and objectives while complying with federally mandated requirements for planning and action on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The goal of the work is to develop, test, and deploy an approach for helping USACE meet its greenhouse gas mitigation targets while preserving or enhancing its authorized project functions and planning for water-resource adaptations to climate change and variability. The approach involves a framework for systematically integrating specific knowledge from operators and other system experts at USACE about their systems’ objectives and performance with actionable information about climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.

Each July at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest the cooperators of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study gather to share information about current research. This annual meeting provides an important opportunity for communication, exchange of ideas, and research plans. This year, the 50th anniversary of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study, the following CFE people gave talks on July 10-11:

Shannon Rogers, an assistant professor with CFE and the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, is working with two students on a pilot project to assess the value of views. This topic is timely and Shannon’s work is featured in the most recent issue of Plymouth Magazine. The research is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) through the New Hampshire EPSCoR program.

Since publication of the Plymouth Magazine article, Shannon has received numerous comments and requests for more information about her research project. “It is exciting to have people interested in our work. The viewshed project is a pilot study and in the future I hope we can expand it to cover a broader region,” Shannon said. “Views are important to people and our region where new land uses are changing the look and possibly the functioning of the landscape. Our research will help us to better understand the complex values people place on a view and the many ecosystem services that may be imbedded in a scenic view.”

Left to right, Plymouth State University Environmental Science and Policy graduate students Ashley Hyde and Matt Bartley collect water samples in the Pemigewasset River in Plymouth July 8.

On July 16, volunteers throughout New Hampshire have committed to collecting water samples in the State’s rivers and streams to take a ‘snapshot’ of water quality. Plymouth State University is overseeing this unique water sampling project with the goal of improving the understanding of New Hampshire’s water resources and providing data to be used by resource managers, state agencies, researchers, and educators.

The Associated Press picked up this story and it has been published around the country.

Plymouth State University, in cooperation with the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (HBRF), hosts a unique summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program based at the Hubbard Brook Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The program emphasizes the societal relevance of ecology and ecosystem science.

This year, nine students from around the country are engaged in a research project developed from the major areas of ecosystem research at Hubbard Brook. Students work under the mentorship of scientists active in research at Hubbard Brook. In addition, through weekly presentations given by the mentors and other scientists, students are also exposed to a full spectrum of ecosystem research.

Throughout the summer, the REU students will be posting information about their work. Check the Hubbard Brook REU Blog for updates!

Please join us onThursday, May 16, 2013, from 7:00pm to 8:00pm at the Squam Lakes Association in Holderness, NH, for a talk by CFE graduate student Andrew Veilleux on “Recreation and Land Management Decision Making on Squam Lakes.”

Andrews is completing his research that investigates how Squam is used and the opinions of those that enjoy the lakes. This project has involved an innovative GIS system to gather from people their perspectives about recreational use on the lake.

As part of the project, Andrew has completed a brochure summarizing his work.